Business Process Analysis for the Design of a Digital Twin of an Oncology Pharmacy

Healthcare procurement and logistics processes involve various systems, actors, and information flows that require efficient control, monitoring, and analysis due to their complexity, importance, and associated risks. This study focuses on analyzing the oncology pharmacy procurement and logistics process at IRST (Istituto Scientifico Romagnolo per lo Studio e la Cura dei Tumori) as a basis for designing a digital twin (DT). A DT is a virtual representation of real system objects that provides decision makers with valuable insights to monitor, control, and analyze the system in real time as it changes. The study is conducted by analyzing the fourteen main phases related to the logistics and procurement of the IRST healthcare system, from demand generation to invoice matching, based on internal documents and interviews with IRST decision makers. Each phase is evaluated and mapped in detail, identifying its actions and involved entities, which are then used to structure the DT in the following steps. Among the twins involved in the system, the drug twin is considered the main entity throughout the fourteen phases, from the initial to the final phase. The drug twin’s properties evolve as it moves through the phases, with some properties added and others carried over, depending on the phase. As a result, the process analysis leads to a first design iteration of the drug twin, which works as a Digital Shadow and captures the interactions and information flows as the drug twin progresses through all phases of the IRST procurement and logistics process.